Taliban Car Bomb Hits U.S. Convoy

An explosives-packed minivan drove into a U.S. convoy and blew up in rush-hour Kabul Tuesday, killing at least 18 people in the group—five of them Americans. At least 47 people were injured, many left lying in the street amid body parts were blown 200 feet from the blast. The New York Times reports that a woman was torn in half in her bus seat as her baby survived, wiggling in her lap, and a man’s head landed on the hood of a truck. The Taliban claimed credit for the bomb, carried out by a Kabul resident, it said on its website. It was the worst suicide attack in several weeks in the city, as the insurgency is concentrated in rural areas. The explosion happened just before Afghan President Hamid Karzai was to speak. Karzai has just returned from meetings with President Obama; a large military offensive will soon be launched around Kandahar, the Taliban’s home turf.